Location

1210 S. Washington Street
Easton, Maryland 21601

Mass Schedule

Daily/Weekly Mass
Monday thru Friday at 8:30am

Saturday Mass
5:30pm (English) and 7:30pm (Spanish)

Sunday Mass
8:30am and 10:30am

Confession Schedule

Saturdays, 9am - 10am

Eucharistic Adoration

1st Tuesday of each month
9:00am to 7:00pm

All are welcome to attend.

The History of Saints Peter & Paul Church

​The present pastor is Father James Nash.

1632 - Calvert Family starts Maryland as an enclave for Catholics.
1640 - Oliver Cromwell's revolt against King Charles I instigates an overthrow of the Maryland Government and elimination of Maryland's Act of Religious Toleration. English Penal Laws against Catholics become law of Maryland for next 150 years.
1649 - Private (home) chapels like "Rich Neck Manor" on Tilghman Point in Easton Bay (near Claiborne).
1680s -1690s - Doncaster (or Wye-Town) Chapel located where the Wye East River meets Eastern Bay. (Colonial town of Doncaster is now under water). Priests at Doncaster included: Nicholas Gulick, Francis Pennington, John Matthews, Thomas Barton, William Hunter, Fr. Plunkett, Fr. Hubbard, John Hall and Robert Brook. Fr. Barton was arrested in 1693 for saying Mass in Queen Anne County.
1600s - Era of Henrietta Maria Lloyd was a staunch, outspoken Catholic and one of the most famous people of colonial Talbot County.
1755 - A boatload of French Catholic Acadians, exiled from Nova Scotia, was dumped at Oxford - they were harshly treated and eventually settled in Catholic Louisiana.
1756 - Fr. James Beadnall, S.J. was arrested. One of the indictments reads for "Officiating Mass" in the homes of David Jones (Easton Landing) and Thomas Browning (Island Creek Neck); and though obligated to post bond, the case was dropped.
1764 - Fr. Joseph Mosley, S.J. was assigned to start a new mission; and on March 18, 1765, Fr. Mosley bought the plot of land from Parson Miller and his wife, and Sara Millington, which became Saint Joseph's in Cordova. For the next twenty-two years Fr. Mosley served Talbot, Queen Anne, Kent, Caroline, and Dorchester counties in Maryland, and Kent and Sussex counties in Delaware from St. Joseph.
1830 - Fr. Richard D. Hardey, S.J. wrote of the possibility of starting a church in Easton.
1840 - Fr. James F.M. Lucas, S.J. rented a hall in Easton and furnished it for Mass, and in 1842 he started a Catholic Total Temperance Society.
1840s through 1850s - Fr. George King, S.J. served the area. Born in Laurel, Delaware, Fr. King was a widower whose son entered the Jesuits. Many other Jesuits served the area from St. Joseph's. Mention must be made of Fr. Edward Henchy who served from 1867 -1870 as a Jesuit and from 1874 -1878 as a diocesan Priest. (Fr. Henchy is buried at St. Peter's in Queenstown.) August 26, 1868 Fr. Henchy started the St. Joseph's Jousting Tournament. The first winner was S. W. Hopkins of Wye Mills.
Early 1860's Baltimore Archbishop John Martin Spalding sent the Redemptorists from Annapolis to Easton. Fr. William Gross, C.S.S.R. was designated as first "Pastor." In December 1866 under Redemptorist direction a church was started in Easton with the help of Howes Goldsborough (whose name appears on the border of our present altar) and Col. Henry May - the church was completed in 1868.
1874 - When the Jesuits left St. Joseph's, it became a mission of St. Peter's in Queenstown until placed under the direction of Saints Peter and Paul in Easton, under Fr. William Temple in 1898. St. Joseph's in Cordova is the second oldest Catholic Church on the Eastern Shore (St. Francis Xavier, Old Bohemia, Warwich was started in 1704) and is the oldest Catholic Church in continuous use.
Bishop Thomas A. Becker, first bishop of Wilmington, set up a committee of Easton residents; Howes Goldsborough, Michael Nichols and Dr. Pierrre O. Charbonnier - to make arrangements for a resident priest at Easton and in September of 1878 newly ordained Fr. Edward L. Brady was appointed as a Pastor. Fr. Brady was the second Pastor (Redemptorist Fr. Gross later became Bishop of Savannah, Georgia).
1884 - Fr. John D. Carey, Pastor of Easton, started the first regular church services at Secretary, Maryland at Sherman's Institute. (St. Elizabeth's at Denton was started in 1831 by priests from St. Joseph's.)
1888 through 1889 - Fr. Francis J. Connelly was Easton Pastor.
1889 - Fr. Edward G. Mickle rebuilt the church in Easton.
1889 through 1893 - Fr. George L. Ott served Easton.
1893 through 1897 - Fr. Thomas Francis Waldron was Pastor of Easton; he built the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Secretary, and the Church of St. Mary, Refuge of Sinners at Cambridge while in Easton.
1898 through 1904 - Fr. William G. Temple a great preacher was the Easton Pastor and enlarged St. Jeseph's in 1903. Fr. Eugene Richard Murphy, 1909-1925, who served Oxford and St. Michaels from Easton, 1905-1909- succeeded Fr. Charles P. McGoldrick, 1904-1905, and Fr. James C. Comiskey. Fr. Murphy died at Emergency Hospital, Easton, at the age of 45 on March 8, 1925.
1925 through 1936 & 1938 through 1969 - Easton was served by Rev. Msgr. Joseph H. Irwin, Pastor for 42 years. During Msgr. Irwin's term Saints Peter and Paul Elementary and High Schools were started in 1955 and 1958, and the Chapel of St. Michaels in St. Michaels was completed in 1969 (from 1964 until 1967, Mass was held at St. Michaels Firehouse; 1967-1969, at Christ Episcopal Church in St. Michaels). During the two-year break in Msgr. Irwin's pastorate, 1936-1938, Fr. Leonard A. Regan was Pastor.
1969 through 1972 - Fr. John J. Farrington succeeded Msgr. Irwin.
1972 through 1985 & 1985 through 1988 - Fr. Howard T. Clark, former diocesan superintendent of schools, was Pastor followed by Fr. John J. Kavanaugh, Pastor from 1985-1987. From October of 1987 to June 1988, Fr. Paul F. Jennings, Jr. served as administrator of Saints Peter and Paul and was appointed Pastor in June 1988. Fr. Farrington and Fr. Jennings were both Maryland State Police Chaplains.
Early 1990s - the elementary school was doubled in size and a new high school building was erected.
1998 - property was secured for a new church in Easton.
1999 through 2014 - Father Robert E. Coine was pastor. During his pastorate, many renovations and construction of a new church took place. This included complete renovation of the mission churches of St. Joseph's and St. Michael's, many upgrades and additions to both schools, the sale of Sts. Peter and Paul Church on Goldsborough Street, ground-breaking for the new Sts. Peter and Paul church in June 2003 with dedication on November 20, 2005, and construction of a new rectory. Father Coine retired in 2014.